{"id":685553,"date":"2026-05-22T03:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/685553\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T03:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:27:15","slug":"48-hour-primer-preseason-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/685553\/","title":{"rendered":"48-Hour Primer | Preseason #1"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a long-standing desire in some Canadian Football League circles to hammer down on the >> button and fast-forward through the preseason to get to the real games.<\/p>\n

You know, the ones that truly matter in the standings.<\/p>\n

We get it. As critical as they are to roster shaping, training camps can drag on and seem tedious to outsiders. And as legendary Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray once wrote, \u201cpreseason games have as much entertainment value as watching a tree form its annual ring.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: they sure as heck matter to all the Winnipeg Blue Bombers travelling to Saskatoon for this Saturday\u2019s first preseason game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, especially for the newbies trying to earn at least one more week.<\/p>\n

They matter to some of the vets trying to fight off a challenge from the young talent assembled in camp.<\/p>\n

Heck, they even matter to a guy like quarterback Bryce Perkins, a 29-year-old with a Super Bowl ring from his days with the Los Angeles Rams and a UFL MVP salute on his football resum\u00e9 now trying to find a spot in the CFL.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, when I was down south with the Rams, the only reason I was able to get three years on the active roster was because of preseason,\u201d Perkins told bluebombers.com this week. \u201cThat helped my career extremely and my trajectory as a player. It\u2019s one of those things \u2014 the games always have a different type of flow than practices. It\u2019s always good to get out there \u2014 especially in practice \u2014 and make sure you\u2019re dialled so that you can go out there and execute the way you\u2019re supposed to in the preseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m definitely excited \u2014 everybody here is. We\u2019ve been practising against each other for so long it\u2019s always nice to line up against somebody else. You get to a certain point in camp where the offence knows what the defence is running, the defence knows what the offence is running, so it\u2019ll\u00a0be good to get out there and get some competitive juices flowing, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perkins, FYI, appeared in three preseason games with the Rams in 2021, threw for three touchdowns against one interception and twice led his squad in rushing yards. A year later he completed 71.4 percent of his passes with two TDs and no picks in three preseason games and then made his NFL debut in Week 10 following injuries to Matthew Stafford and John Wolford.<\/p>\n

So, heck yeah, he learned a ton from those experiences that he can take into Griffiths Stadium on Saturday. The size of the stage may be different, but not the end goal: showcase his ability to process and put what he\u2019s learned through camp into practice. Flashing his ability to ad lib, too, could be critical.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe preseason is never perfect,\u201d Perkins said. \u201cBeing able to overcome some of those things, especially in the preseason, is definitely a trait that a lot of people look at. It\u2019s also about taking care of the ball. I try to make sure I\u2019m taking care of the ball when I\u2019m out there and move the field and end the drive with a kick at all times.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s definitely a fine balance between not pressing \u2014 you have to tell yourself that: Don\u2019t press, the play will be there. Don\u2019t do anything extraordinary that may actually hurt the team. Take the play when it\u2019s there. And when the time is there to make that spectacular play, be ready for it but don\u2019t hunt it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perkins split his college days between Arizona State (2015-16), Arizona Western (2017) and Virginia (2018-19) before signing with the Rams as an undrafted free agent in 2020. He broke out during his days with the Cavaliers, including setting a school record in 2018 for total offence in a single season with 3,603 yards and 34 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

That was then, this is now. And right now Perkins is trying to gobble up as much of the Canadian game as quickly as possible through offensive coordinator and by watching the other QBs in the Blue Bombers room, including Zach Collaros, Taylor Elgersma and Terry Wilson. Perkins is scrapping with Elgersma and Wilson for a spot behind Collaros on the depth chart.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had to retrain my brain because it\u2019s definitely different,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely different. You just get so used to seeing certain looks over and over and over that when you come up here you have to retrain yourself and learn the looks again so that you can play fast. That\u2019s been the biggest adjustment for me \u2014 being able to see everything and then be comfortable out there. It\u2019s learning process with everything and so it\u2019s been going every day and trying to stack things every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cTommy does a great job of coaching it for us and then it\u2019s just reps, reps, reps. Our defence, from what I hear, is probably one of the most-challenging defences in the league in giving you certain looks and reads. That\u2019s definitely good for us.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach day I\u2019m feeling more comfortable in getting out here and learning. I\u2019m looking forward to putting it all together for the preseason game. I don\u2019t care where we\u2019re playing. As long as they got lines on the field, I\u2019m ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

QB EXITS: The Blue Bombers did see their quarterback room shrink by one on Thursday with Payton Thorne being placed on the suspended list after he decided to leave the team.<\/p>\n

Thorne, FYI, was at practice on Wednesday but did not participate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a great conversation this morning,\u201d said head coach Mike O\u2019Shea. \u201cHe\u2019s a great kid. He\u2019s really smart. I\u2019m sure he\u2019s got a future in football still, it\u2019s just this is what he had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he was disappointed Thorne opted to leave, O\u2019Shea added:<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah. You\u2019re disappointed because you want to run an organization where nobody ever leaves, where they all want to stay all the time. There\u2019s that part.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I also am genuinely excited if somebody has things figured out enough that this is the decision they make because it\u2019s not an easy decision. And there are guys I disagree with when I say, \u2018I don\u2019t think you\u2019re doing the right thing.\u2019 But they\u2019re all individual conversations. You can\u2019t lump them all in together. Every year it happens and every year you navigate those conversations based on who the guy is and what he\u2019s saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he\u2019s done with football yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a long-standing desire in some Canadian Football League circles to hammer down on the >> button and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-685553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}